NIKITA MAZEPIN
Just who is the new Haas driver; Russia’s latest F1 hope?
What do you know about Nikita Mazepin? You’re probably aware that he has a rich dad. Maybe you’ve heard he once hit Ferrari Junior Callum Ilott in the face. And now, having lost out to Ilott in Formula 2, he’s beaten him to a 2021 Haas seat alongside Mick Schumacher.
Well, there’s a lot more you need to know. The paths of Mazepin and Schumacher have crossed before, towards the end of their karting careers when they were team-mates in the works Tonykart team, and Nikita boldly claims that he was “a lot better” than Mick. In fact, it was maybe Schumacher Sr who left the bigger impression on Nikita.
“Mick’s father was handling his career at the time,” Mazepin tells GP Racing. “He was very down to earth and straightforward. You can imagine how a surname like that can open doors – especially in a world as small as karting. They had the opportunity to jump from category to category with the best equipment, the best professionals, but that’s not how they went about business. Michael never took advantage of his name. There were no privileges, no breaks.”
Mazepin’s karting career ended on a strong note, finishing World KF1 runner-up to Lando Norris in 2014. But from there it got complicated. Nikita struggled in the junior single-seater formulae – which he puts down to specifics of his driving style.
“It was clear I was suited to cars with a stable rear,” he admits. “When I tried Formula BMW – small wheels, no downforce – it was very difficult. I didn’t understand what was going on. Where’s the speed? Where are the results?”
After no wins and just a couple of podiums in his first year and a bit in single-seaters, including Formula Renault 2.0, New Zealand’s Toyota Racing Series and India’s MRF Challenge, Mazepin moved up to F3, yet progress still wasn’t evident.
But a lack of tangible successes in junior series didn’t prevent him working with F1 teams. In 2016 Nikita was announced as a development driver for Force India. He drove eight days of official testing over three seasons. Is it worth hiding that it was more the father’s money, not the son’s results, that helped the team ‘see the potential’ in the young racer?
And yet, if Nikita is to be believed, the lack of results nearly led to him ending his career before GP3 saved him.
“I had an understanding that if I don’t produce results, then probably my career is over,” Mazepin said of his own expectations ahead of 2018. “But after the first test I already understood this car fits me perfectly. I found what I’ve been
WORDS OLEG KARPOV PORTRAIT HAAS
looking for, all my years of racing in F3. That generation’s GP3 was the best car for my style.”
GP3 re-launched Mazepin’s career. He finished runner-up, behind only the late Anthoine Hubert. For 2019, Mazepin got promoted to F2 with ART, with whom George Russell had won the previous year’s title.
The path to F1 seemed open. As well as signing for one of the best junior teams in F2, Mazepin began active preparation to debut in the world championship. In addition to an official test day with Mercedes in a current F1 car, he had several private outings with a two-year-old machine on tracks that host grands prix. He will not speak of it on the record, but it is no secret in the paddock: Mazepin – not for free, you must imagine – has practiced in Mercedes F1 machinery for the past two years.
Sounds familiar? Yes, after the Strolls and the Latifis we’ll see another pairing in F1 comprised of a billionaire father and a sufficiently able son. Nikita Mazepin’s story is also the project of his father, a Belarus-born Russian businessman and chairman of Uralchem, a huge Russian chemical company.
Mazepin Sr dictated “it was either racing and education, or just education. No other option” so Nikita also studies at Moscow State University. In 2019 it was looking like he might need to fall back on that education. His ART team-mate Nyck de Vries won the F2 title, while Mazepin languished in 18th.
“I lost all motivation and all the self-confidence I’d built up in 2018,” he explains. “It was very hard to race for ART. They had a very experienced and supremely talented racer in the second car. If a car is going well, then ‘why aren’t you going as well in it?’. The set-up, their philosophy dictates, must work for both drivers. And that definitely helps pick out the stars – the likes of Lewis [Hamilton], whoever else – you put them in a two-wheeled car and they’ll still go fast. But I needed more time, that’s my particularity.”
Mazepin insists 2020 was almost his last chance. After splitting with ART, Nikita, in his own words, “bet everything on red”. The Mazepins brought their own Hitech team into F2, and things improved. Despite a weak start, Mazepin took two wins and finished the campaign fifth. It is a decent rebuke to those who believe he hasn’t earned his F1 call-up.
“I think F2 doesn’t let anyone doubt that it’s one of the hardest junior categories in the world, and since I’m in a new team you definitely can’t say I have a better car than my rivals do,” he insists. “So it’s a good response. But it’s not my goal to explain something to someone. I do my talking on the track.”